In the debate over the Department of Defense policy on military health care benefits, many military personnel and retirees say that they were promised “free health care for life” when they entered the armed forces. What benefits are available and who is eligible to receive these benefits are matters determined by Congress. This report discusses the issue of “promises” of lifetime health care benefits made to military retirees.

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This report provides a brief overview o the six features of the committee system in the House: organization, hearings, markup, reporting, oversight, and publications.

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This report discusses the status and current developments of China's missile programs.

This report provides historical background on the South Lebanon Army (SLA), its collapse, and the status of its members following Israel's withdrawal.

On March 9, 2000, the House Committee on the Judiciary reported favorably H.R. 2372. The bill, titled "Private Property Rights Implementation Act of 2000," is aimed principally at lowering the threshold barriers of ripeness and abstention encountered when land owners file in federal court challenging local government actions as "takings." (1) Under the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause (which applies to state and local, not only federal, actions), private property may not be "taken" for public use without just compensation.

The 106th Congress is considering a general overhaul of derivatives regulation. Pending legislation would codify the unregulated status of certain derivatives, exempt many other currently-regulated contracts from oversight by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and permit the trading of a new kind of contract: a futures contract based on the stock of an individual corporation. Derivatives legislation has been reported out of committee in both House and Senate. This report analyzes this legislation in the 106th Congress, and will be updated as developments warrant.

Some Members of Congress have expressed interest in the feasibility of using a value-added tax (VAT) to either replace all or part of the income tax or finance health care reform. A VAT is imposed at all levels of production on the differences between firms' sales and their purchases from all other firms. Policymakers may be interested in the following aspects of a VAT: revenue yield, international comparison of composition of taxes, vertical equity, neutrality, inflation, balance-of-trade, national saving, administrative cost, intergovernmental relations, size of government, and public opinion.

With the close of the second Summit of the Americas on April 19, 1998, 34 nations of the Western Hemisphere had formally agreed to negotiate a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). It is a long way from completion, but the prospect of achieving closer regional economic ties is now officially embraced. Except for Mexico, merchandise trade between the United States and Latin America is relatively small, but has been growing steadily this decade, a result of expanding U.S. global trade and reforms in Latin America. Still, some countries in Latin America are more closed to U. S. trade than others, raising the possibility of additional benefits accruing from an FTAA, This report tracks U.S. Latin American trade data in support of congressional interest in the regional trade negotiation process and will be updated as warranted.

"Soft money" has become one of the major issues in the area of campaign financing in federal elections. The controversy surrounding this issue is due to the perception that soft money may be the largest loophole in the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA). Soft money is broadly defined as funds that are raised and spent according to applicable state laws; that would be impermissible, under the FECA, to spend directly in federal elections and that may have an indirect influence on federal elections. This Issue Brief discusses three major types of soft money: political party soft money, corporate and labor union soft money, and soft money used for issue advocacy communications.

This report has four major purposes: to summarize the constitutional and statutory requirements governing apportionment; to explain how the current apportionment formula works in theory and in practice; to summarize recent challenges to it on grounds of unfairness; and to explain the reasoning underlying the choice of the equal proportions method over its chief alternative, major fractions.

This CRS report contains three parts. The first part discusses ballistic missiles of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The second discusses the PRC’s cruise missiles. The last section offers concluding observations. Two tables summarize the discussion on current ballistic and cruise missiles in service or under development. The appendix, prepared by Robert Shuey, discusses China’s reported application of global positioning system (GPS) technology to improve the accuracy of its missiles. This report focuses on the status and current developments of China’s missile programs, rather than their history.

This report examines the major, foreign conventional weapon systems that China has acquired or has committed to acquire since 1990, with particular attention to implications for U.S. security concerns. It is not the assumption of this report that China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), will engage in conflict with other forces in Asia. Nonetheless, since the mid-1990s, there has been increasing concern about China’s assertiveness in Asia and greater threats against Taiwan.

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This report discusses the history of the federal grants-in-aid system, which predates the Constitution. he grants-in-aid system assumed its current form when President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated his New Deal programs. Since Roosevelt, the grants-in-aid system has expanded, especially in the number and dollar amount of categorical grant programs.

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